Archives for August 2014

Enter The Dragon Brewer

I’m in my living room with a black plastic suitcase- the kind musicians use to transport expensive equipment and mobsters use to hold weapons and drugs. Inside is what Todd Carmichael has dubbed “The Assassin Kit”, which contains a first production run of his renowned brewer, The Dragon. It also includes an …

Louisville-based roaster Quills Coffee announced today that they are expanding to Indianapolis this fall. Quills (which also happens to be my other place of employment), already roasts their coffee in New Albany, Indiana – a small town directly across the Ohio River from West Louisville. Quills writes on their website:

Expanding to a new city is a big and, frankly, scary step for our company- but one that we’re excited to make. Indianapolis’s culinary scene is experiencing burgeoning growth that is attracting national attention. Our experience opening our New Albany café and roastery has taught us that Hoosiers have an eager appetite for specialty coffee, and we’re excited to contribute to Indy’s growing coffee community. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that our founder Nathan Quillo is a diehard Colts fan.

Very few specialty coffee companies have pulled off the multi-city model, but the close proximity to Louisville makes Indy a logical choice for Quills. We expect Indianapolis has a lot in store for the future, and we’re excited Kentucky gets to be a small part of it.

In the words of the immortal Gob Bluth, “It’s an illusion Michael”. They promised castles, fireworks, and cool hangs with A-list Disney celebs and all I got was wall to wall traffic. On the upside, I knew my wife would be pleased to know that I had ample amounts of time to window shop for a minivan for our family amongst the millions in the barrage that were blocking my views of the palm trees and blotting out the sunshine. All that to say, I had enough of Mickey, Walt, and the crew and set out to find a good cup of coffee in the heart of Florida. After venturing towards the downtown area, I landed at East End Market where Lineage Coffee resides. I was instantaneously caught off guard by the lush garden in front of the building. The East End Market is a neighborhood market and a collaboration of creative culinary destinations in the Audubon Park Garden District of Orlando, Florida. The Market is home to some of central Florida’s top food entrepreneurs, chefs, baristas, and artists. My first impression of Lineage was the warm greeting and hospitality of their Lead Barista Alicia. She was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly. Customer service experiences like this always make shops stand out in my mind. After a mouthwatering pour over, she recommended their “White Bottled Cold Brew”. That was all she wrote. I was instantly hooked on Lineage.

Today I am elated to tell you that Jarrett Johnson and Justine Johnson, the Founder and Co-Founder of Lineage Roasting, Orlando’s craft coffee roaster, are hear to discuss their story, vision, and journey with me on The Coffee Compass.

First off, I wanted to thank you guys for joining me on this guest post for The Coffee Compass and for the ridiculous amount of hospitality your staff showed me while I was in your city.

Thank you so much for the honor of having us be a part.

Tell us about yourselves and the story of how Lineage Roasting came to life?

I actually started in the craft scene by home brewing beer and became super passionate about the art of creating something so delicious from such simple ingredients. I thought for the longest time we would be opening a brewery in Orlando. It wasn’t until we moved here that we really got into the coffee roasting. I felt like coffee was a dumbed down sister to the more complex chemical reactions of fermentation and beer making. I really had to force myself to hit the books and study coffee because I just thought there was not enough to learn and without the challenge I didn’t have the determination. Once I started seeing this whole world of coffee and what makes it special and how it joins the farmer in Colombia to the drinker in Florida. Now you have my attention. I got so hooked that I bought every book I could find and began traveling and watching and tasting as many coffee companies as I could find. It became an obsession and still really is.

Is there significance behind the name Lineage?

There’s an old idiom—“When it all goes south…”—that is commonly used to describe something that is declining in value or quality. One could justifiably argue that the state of Southern coffee roasters has “gone south.”

Now, I’m a Chicagoan and, to me, everything below Interstate 80 is “the South;” but, with this piece, I’m going to try to redeem that old expression.

While the West coast and major metropolitan areas like Chicago and New York City have been engulfed by specialty coffee, the “third wave” is also slowly “going south.” Southern states—collectively, even—may not have the sheer quantity of critically acclaimed and nationally renown specialty coffee roasters that, say, Portland, Seattle, or San Francisco have, there are several operations that definitely stand out.

Has the Hario V60 gone out of style, or has the Kalita wave started to win the pour over war? The answer to that question might still be disputable, but Intelligentsia has always had our hearts, and shows us how to brew on the Hario V60 like hipsters in this two minute video featuring some chill wave music by Cale Parks. And sorry, you won’t be able to see Jesse Raub’s beautiful face, but you can check out him eating pizza among other things on his twitter account.

Paper, Metal, or Cloth Filters?

In pour over coffee, the paper filter reigns supreme. It produces amazing clarity by preventing a lot of coffee oil and fines from ending up in the cup. It is also the cheapest and most readily available option stateside compared to either metal or cloth filters. Able Brewing’s beautiful and long lasting Kone metal filters, for one, retail for $60, rather steep up front in comparison to most paper filters. I’ve been served an elegantly brewed Chemex using a Kone at Coava. But ultimately the style itself is too muddled for my taste—lots of oil and fines in the cup. (French pressers, though, would love the Kone when they opt for a pour over).

In the wake of the Handsome exodus, Los Angeles found itself with seasoned baristas looking to open new coffee shops. Handsome co-founder Tyler Wells has done just that with Blacktop, an espresso bar in the Arts District of Downtown L.A. We journeyed through the red sea to discover if there was manna from heaven awaiting us on the opposite shore.

Blacktop of the Game

Blacktop coffee is the archetypal stop-n-go coffee shop. We expected a minimalist setup, but were impressed to find…

At The Compass we have a simple approach to coffee: do whatever James Hoffmann says. Thankfully, that’s about to get a lot easier now. Today on his blog Hoffmann announced he’s publishing his first book, The World Atlas of Coffee. Considering the burgeoning growth of specialty coffee, there’s a surprising dearth of reliable books on coffee. With Hoffmann’s new book, we’re optimistic we’ve finally found a single authoritative tome on coffee. Hoffmann comments,

The book isn’t about me, or about Square Mile Coffee, but just about coffee. The book is divided into three sections: an introduction to coffee in general, a section on brewing techniques (aimed at making professional standards accessible and worthwhile to home users) and then the atlas section, with individual countries divided by continent.

If you’ve never been to Budapest, there are three things I want you to realize before reading this review. One: there is a lot of espresso in Budapest. It’s actually really hard to find a café or restaurant without some means of pulling some kind of shot. Two: there is virtually no filter coffee in Budapest. Three: coffee in Budapest is basically all bad. If you have been there, I think you’ll agree when I say it qualifies as a coffee desert. If you happen across the open doors of Espresso Embassy, you just might think you’re seeing a mirage. I had been in Budapest for two full days before Espresso Embassy took me in. It was nothing less than sweet relief….